Monthly Archives: March 2011

Sources from BlackBerry have confirmed that version 6.1 of BlackBerry Desktop Manager might be coming in the very new future. The update will allow for compatibility with handsets that run the 6.1 version of the operating system. The app will allow users to better customize and make changes to their desktop to better suit their needs.

One of the biggest additions from the update is the ability for the BlackBerry such as Bold 9780 and unlocked Torch 9800 to forget the previous devices that have been backed up and synced. This is a feature that has been highly anticipated from users of the service.

A few screenshots of the new version of the software have made their way online that show a number of options that are available to users. You can set the Desktop Manager to ensure that the software will start up as soon as the device is connected, automatically check for updates to the software, and allow for Bluetooth connections to be made.

This is a huge update that will bring a number of key features to the BlackBerry desktop software. One of the biggest inclusion in the update is the compatibility with OS 6.1, which had previously not been able to connect to the BlackBerry Desktop Software for BlackBerry Torch 9800, Curve 8520 unlocked, etc .

Although this update does take care of a number of key issues, not every complaint was addressed with this update. Hopefully updates that correspond with software updates to the operating system will be much more timely moving forward. Some users have been waiting quite some time for these updates, and the compatibility with the desktop management software is a key feature for many users. The app also offers advanced offers for companies that use the BlackBerry Enterprise Service, and will allow for you to check and synchronize user certificates. It will be interesting to see if Research In Motion adds more features moving forward.

NFC payments are undoubtedly the next big thing. Imagine being able to pay for things at your local grocery store right from your cell phone. There are a number of services that have already inhabited the space, but the deal between Google and Mastercard should be one of the largest and should connect the Google Checkout program with the capabilities of Mastercard as a company.

The deal should allow for NFC access to come to a number of future Android releases. Access could even be granted to current models of phones that have the features required to run the NFC technology.

It looks as though the service will work by receiving the shopping cart info from the customers who are making the purchase from a smart device, and also allows them to set up their shipping options. Google will also be behind naming the total cost of the order. Then, Google will be responsible for collecting the payment. This will allow for google to get a look at exactly what the customers are buying, which might be a bit of a scary thing for some. The amount of data that Google has access to is already huge, but having direct information about purchases that users make through their NFC technology would provide them with another huge helping of valuable information.

Their service would differ from PayPal and other similar services because they typically will just exchange information with other merchants. In a day and age where everyone is worried about privacy, a deal as large as this may need some approval from government agencies before being allowed. Look for more information to be passed along regarding this issue in the near future. The trend is one that is steadily growing, and you can expect other companies to take a look at NFC technology moving forward as well.

Samsung’s app store has been steadily growing since it was first launched, and the company announced that they have officially passed the one hundred million app download mark. This is a huge number, and shows that third party app markets might be the wave of the future. Samsung has output a number of highly touted smart phones devices such as unlocked Samsung captivate i897, Samsung Galaxy S Vibrant, etc and their app market has grown as a result.

There are currently more than 13,000 apps currently available throughout the market. That is more than six times as much as was there when the store was first launched. Some of hte most popular apps that are available through the Samsung app store include Speed Shift and Magic Torch, two very popular games.

It looks as though most of the downloads have come from Europe, most of which come from France. Between France, Germany and Spain, the three companies have accounted for more than forty percent of the total number of downloads.

Apps for unlocked Samsung phone have continued to grow in popularity and in the size of the pool of apps that are currently available. The overall quality of the Samsung applications has also consistently increased since the service was first launched. Consistently improving their service is something that the company has obviously taken seriously, and their 100 million downloads mark further proves that their efforts have paid off. Samsung appears to be leading the way in the third party app market industry.

In the press release that was put out today also stated that the company is expecting to quickly grow throughout the course of 2011. With their upcoming new line of high powered smart devices, Bada, you can expect many new users to become interested in their app marketplace moving forward. Now the company will have to focus on attracting some of the larger app development companies in the space, in order to make more apps available moving forward.

It looks as though Apple is looking to expand farther into the smart television market. They already have their Google TV product, which is set to deliver high quality streaming videos to users, and now it looks as though they are looking to bring a version of their iOS operating system to actual television sets as well. The new television set would be another market that Apple is looking to revolutionize is the same way that they did the tablet and smart phone markets with the unlocked iPhone 4 and iPad. Apparently, the company already has a working prototype of the forthcoming smart television.; The new TV would be able to automatically connect to their Apple TV service to provide users with video content quickly and easily. They could also allow users to purchase games that can be directly played through the TV.

It is also thought that Apple would be looking to include DVR features, allowing users to to record television straight through the television. You can expect many of their more popular apps to be updated to work through the television, including their most prominent apps including FaceTime, which would allow users to video chat straight through the television set.

If Apple were able to grab around 1 percent of the current television market, the TV could potentially earn them $4 billion each and every year. They may also look into creating several docking units that would add extra features to the television set.

No matter what they decide to run with, Apple’s iphone 4 unlocked will be delving into an industry that it has not before and will be leading the way as they have in so many industries recently. Now that the word is out, look for other companies to begin developing similar products of their own. Apple tends to lead the way, but there is always competition close behind looking to capitalize on the attention Apple has brought to a new market.

Sprint has officially ditched their mail-in rebates model, and is now going to be going with an instant rebate model that provides instant savings to their users. Verizon also made a similar move at the beginning of the year. The move will mostly effect their most expensive cell phone. The idea behind the mail in rebates is that a certain percent of the customers will never take advantage of it and will just choose to pay the extra costs rather than spend the time mailing the rebate in. Also, there were issues with the mail in rebate never arriving, which was a complaint of many who took the time to pursue the rebate.

The information was confirmed by Sprint. The official switch came on March 27th, and will continue well into the foreseeable future. The company has not stated whether or not this switch will be completely permanent, but did make it clear that they were willing to give it a shot for quite some time moving forward.

If the switch is is only a temporary one, the company has not released any information regarding when users can expect it to disappear, so you might want to take advantage of the offer while it was there. The company made the move shortly after the same move was made by Verizon.

It will be interesting to see if other carriers follow in the footsteps of both Verizon and Sprint. Getting rid of the mail in rebate is certainly something that would be in the best interest of their customers, but may not be in the best interests of the company. Look for more companies to make similar changes in the future if it leads to more sales of smart devices. That is the end goal but could result in reduced revenue for the company, which could mean that the offer doesn’t stick around quite as long as many are hoping that it will.

Can you imagine your car being completely compatible with your mobile provider to deliver you updates regarding the charging of your electric car right to your mobile device. This week, AT&T and Ford announced that they have put together a deal that will allow for wireless connectivity to be built directly into to the Focus Electric model that Ford is releasing.

The deal will allow Ford to connect to AT&T for their MyFord Mobile app. This app will be able to let you know where your car is at, and exactly how much it has charged thus far. It will also give you a good idea regarding how much battery life you have left when you are not around your car.

The app also helps you to schedule charging, setup notifications, and even has compatibility with other apps including MapQuest. All of the data is shared from the car to the smart device through the connection that is provided with AT&T.

So far the app will work with Android, BlackBerry and iOS device such as iphone 4 unlocked. The company has not made any announcements about extending the compatibility to other platforms, but even if the pap does not work with your smart device, you can still use the web interface that is provided by Ford.

A press release was released by both companies that explains in great detail exactly how this will work and what users can expect to get out of the new deal between Ford and AT&T. This could just be the first step in a larger process of connecting your car to your mobile carrier and device that could simplify many aspects of your life in the future. MyFord Mobile is available on the Ford website. It will be interesting to see where things head from here.

With the company behind the ultra popular Angry Birds releasing an Amazon App Store for unlocked cell phone exclusive new update for the game, AT&T is looking to enable purchases through the app store as well. This would be the first time that they have budged from only allowing users to download things from their own app store. AT&T has never previously allowed anything like this, and this should serve as a small shift in strategy for the company. They will be allowing their branded Android devices to have access to the Amazon App Store for the first time in the history of the company.

AT&T released a statement saying that they were looking to allow users to access third party app stores, but also said that they were going to have to finish the agreements with Amazon first, and promised to share more information with their users at some point in the near future.

Hopefully Angry Birds Rio, and other apps that are exclusively offered through the Amazon App Store will make their way to AT&T branded Android devices here soon. The announcement came as a bit of a surprise because AT&T has been mostly steadfast in their strategies prior to this, and this serves as a big change in the way that they do business.

In order for this to happen there will likely have to be some sort of widespread update to the firmware, but the company has not confirmed this at this time. Could this be the first step in opening up the door for third party app stores in the future. They do already exist but have not been able to maintain much leverage with most carriers not allowing direct access to them. Hopefully this is the start of a change in the way that business is done within AT&T moving forward.

The Samsung App Store for unlocked cell phone such as Samsung Captivate i897, Samsung Nexus S unlocked, etc.. has a bit of a head start over other application stores because they operate on both cell phones and on televisions, but that is not stopping the company from issuing a statement that their app store has officially passed the one hundred million download mark. The mark is a huge one that is exclusive to only a few other app stores in the industry, and even though Samsung crosses through both the mobile and television industry with their app downloads, that does not make the number any less impressive.

It has been ten months since the service first launched. It looks as though Europe is the primary downloading location for users of the Samsung app store. France had the largest number of downloads of any country, with Germany and Spain following closely behind. The three countries together combined to account for more than forty percent of the overall number of downloads from the Samsung App Store since it was first launched more than ten months ago.

The app store is currently home to more than 13,000 applications. This number is smaller than most for unlocked BlackBerry Bold 9780, Torch 9800, etc.. other app stores, but is only seven thousand apps behind the BlackBerry App World store which recently hit the 20,000 mark. The Samsung App Store has quietly grown over the course of the last few months and has become one of the more popular app providers on the Internet. It will be interesting to see if they are able to keep up their huge rate of growth moving forward, or if they will slow down as so many other app stores have. The numbers that they announced are quite large for only having been around for the last ten months, but are still not touching the numbers of some of the more popular app stores, such as the Apple iTunes app store and the Android App Marketplace.

Would you believe us if we told you that an unlocked iPhone 4 could survive a 1,000 foot fall out of a plane? While thousands are probably upset because their device broke when it fell out of their lap onto the floor as they stood up, the story is true. A US Air Force Combat Controller named Ron Walker took his story to the media after taking a number of armed forces individuals with him to do a jump from a plane.

He said that he looked out the door to find landmarks on the ground below to help him get the plane into the right position for the jump, when the flap that held his phone broke open, and his iPhone 4 flew out of his pocket. The plane was moving more than 150 miles per hour at the time. He watched as the phone fell and made its way all the way to the ground, and he assumed that the phone was probably going to be lost forever, but was curious to see what condition it was in after such a long drop.

When he got to the ground, he told the story to some colleagues who installed the Find My Phone app. Within minutes they had located the phone. It was still active, much to their surprise. They followed it in vehicles and were able to find it in a wooded area not far from where they were.

The iPhone 4 unlocked did not have any significant damage, and to their surprise, was in perfect working order. It was something that they never expected. He quickly made his way online and sent his story to a number of mobile websites that quickly published it. As you might have guessed, these results are not typical and no one would recommend throwing your phone out of a moving plane to see if it survives. The fact that it still worked was crazy enough, but the lack of significant damage was the defining part of the story.

Motorola cell phone maker has announced that they have acquired the Swedish TV software company Dreampark. This could meant hat the company is looking to add to their TV technology with the acquisition and get deeper in that market. That acquisition is not expected to come to a final close until the second quarter of 2011, and so far details of the acquisition have not been made public yet. Motorola will look to use their Dreamgallery and other technology from the company and place them in the software suite offered by the company, Motorola Medios.

The press release suggested that the acquisition was completely for their Motorola Medios software suite, but the company has developed a number of other technologies that certainly could find some sort of use in other arenas of Motorola as well.

Once the transaction is completely closed, Dreampark will be integrated into their business and will cease to exist as its own entity. The purchase will allow the company to have a broader portfolio and will also allow them to increase their customer base moving forward.

It will contesting to see what kind of technologies come about as a result of the acquisition. There were no rumors about Motorola looking at DreamPark previous to this and it seemed to come out of nowhere from an industry standpoint. Could this be a start of flurry of acquisitions for their software suite, or will this single acquisition be enough for the company moving forward.

“This transaction enables us to continue to enhance our Medios software portfolio and capitalize upon the convergence of wireless technology,” said the Motorola VP John Burke, who addressed the media following the announcement of the acquisition. This seems to be in the best interest of both companies and shows that Motorola is dedicated to making sure that their software suite is packed chalk-full of useful software.